recently...

This will likely be my last update before heading home on the 29th. So some more info. I will be in Wuxi until around the 26th then I will head to Shanghai for a few days of touristing and shopping and then head home on the 29th. My phone will be operative until the flight attendants tell me to turn it off in English, French, Mandarin and Cantonese. I will be taking flight AC38 from Shanghai to Vancouver, stopping for hopefully only a three hour layover, assuming it's not six like last time. Cross your somethings. Then I have flight AC100 from Vancouver to Toronto landing around 11:30 pm on the 29th. This flight seems to be notoriously late. Fortunately, there is a Tim's in every terminal.

Ok, next, for those who somehow manage to read by blog in China, I will be having a party on Saturday before I leave, so message me or email me for info. For those not in China, if you have not already done so, make my life easy and email me specific details of what gifts you would like to receive from China.

Now, for the sun stuff. Today I was in Da Niang, a dumpling restaurant, and as usual the staff were sitting around doing nothing discussing what country I was from and my usual order and the various deficiencies in my spoken Chinese and diet, etc., as they usually do. However, as they were all staring at them and I was seated facing them, I looked up and caught their eyes and then smiled amusedly. Normally, the Chinese have no shame, but this time, the girls covered their faces, turned red and then giggling, fell to the floor behind the counter hiding in embarrassment at having been caught openly talking about someone in the same language they use to communicate with them. Ironic, isn't it? They proceeded to peek over the counter every few seconds until I stopped looking at them, just to be safe. What, oh what, can be learned from this experience, I wonder?

Speaking of experiences, because the past few monsoon-like rain storms have flooded the road outside my school, they have decided to dig the road up (again) to try to improve the drainage, 'cause no one likes it when the sewers back up onto the road. While doing this, they managed to rupture the water main, flooding the road again...

Finally, does anyone know the Chinese word for Guelph?

Oh, and that picture at the top of the page is the latest horrific Chinese 'accident'. There's also the flooded mine that trapped over a hundred people last week. The picture is from The Globe and Mail. The plane exploded at the airport in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. China Airlines has a bit of a reputation for this kind of thing.